Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Barn yarn: Retirees knitting sweaters for chilly chickens

By Rodrique Ngowi | AP

In this Wednesday, March 8, 2017 photo, “Prince Peep,” a rooster native to Malaysia, wears a sweater at Fuller Village retirement home in Milton, Mass. The sweater was one of many knitted by a group of women in the retirement home for chickens in a neighboring nonprofit education program. (Steven Senne/Associated Press)

MILTON, Massachusetts — Sweaters for chickens? It sounds like a joke,
but a plucky group of retirees in suburban Boston has hatched a plan to
keep poultry warm during the New England winter.

The unusual
project began after members of a knitting club at Fuller Village, a
retirement home in Milton, Massachusetts, heard about the hardships that
some chickens suffer this time of year.

Certain breeds shed
their feathers and grow new plumage in the winter months. Others
imported from tropical climates just aren’t suited for the wintry
conditions.

Organizer Nancy Kearns said the project benefits
birds kept on a neighboring estate known as the Mary M.B. Wakefield
Charitable Trust.